No NC winner declared at Comdex

There are no winners at a shoot-out here among companies diving into network computers, but the midday forum did serve as a good barometer for the slowly emerging NC market.

June 2, 19971:15 PM PDT

ATLANTA--There were no winners at a Spring Comdex '97 shoot-out among
companies diving into network computers, but the
midday forum did serve as a good barometer for the slowly emerging NC market.

Executives from several companies entering the market for thin-client
devices were joined by a packed house of interested users. With a Gartner Group study pegging the annual
cost of ownership associated with the new boxes at about half that of a
typical PC, the hype surrounding the network computer is high. Even
notorious memory gobbler Microsoft
has joined the fray, introducing strategies for lowering administrative
costs, thin PCs, and a Windows terminal in an effort to leverage its desktop
franchise.

Gartner Group analyst Neil MacDonald predicted a potentially significant
market for network computers as replacements for legacy dumb
terminals and outdated PCs, and as a first computer in corporate divisions
that previously did not need computing functionality. MacDonald reiterated
that the NC battle comes down to a war of computer software
architectures, pitting Microsoft's ActiveX against Sun's Java. The actual hardware is not as important, he said.

Upcoming moves may speed NC adoption. A second version of
the base software reference specification for the NC is expected to be
introduced soon, building on the bare initial version that debuted more
than a year ago. Also, network computers from major players such as IBM,
Sun, and third parties using Oracle's software implementation have hit the
market, and that could help move discussion away from a religious battle
between Microsoft and NC visionaries to a common-sense
discourse based on user roll-out strategies.

One systems administrator from the State of Florida said he had tested
several NC implementations and was now looking for a company to help him
integrate 100 of the new devices into the state's sprawling network. This could be where systems giants have an edge over smaller companies, a fact that a company like Sun was quick to trumpet.

Steve Tirado, Sun's director of product marketing for the company's
JavaStation division, wondered how long companies such as NCD and HDS could
survive as sellers of network computers without offering the back-end "fat"
server components, one of his company's primary markets.

The shoot-out series here continues tomorrow with a forum focused on
handheld computers.